


Echoes and Memories

by Tish



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:12:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8368420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/pseuds/Tish
Summary: Sapphire and Steel reunite with a familiar face to investigate a spooky event.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blueteak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueteak/gifts).



The soft, sibilant hiss of chalk upon the board broke the silence in the room. Robert's hand formed the gently curved symbols of the partial derivative. Tip the delta on its side and close the loop and you'd get infinity, he mused silently to himself. He solved the equation and underlined the answer three times, then stood back in satisfaction.

By force of habit he looked at the glass-domed clock on his desk, before smiling as he realised it hadn't worked in donkey's years – it was just for show. He looked up at the wall clock, the red second hand sweeping out the flowing time. It was after three a.m., too late for cleaners, the right time for grad students having breakdowns over experiments, and maybe for the odd dedicated party-goer to pass out on the hillside lawns.

Three a.m. was also a time for a young physics lecturer to call it a night and enjoy the short term break.

As he opened the heavy door to the stairwell, Robert paused. The creaking door had almost overshadowed a woman's voice. He held his breath and listened intently. Silence. Robert shook his head and put it down to tiredness, or the settling foundations of the building. But still, that voice had seemed so familiar. The plummy cadences of the mysterious woman from so long ago echoed in his mind. Her blue dress, her smile, and her fierce bravery had stayed with him, buried in dreams, channelling his intellect and curiosity towards his life's work in quantum physics.

Slowly closing the door, Robert turned to the other end of the corridor. Behind him were the basement offices, ahead were the acoustics laboratories. The sound had definitely come from the labs.

 

As he pushed open the door, the rational part of his mind scolded him. “You're overtired and hearing things. Maybe it was one of the technicians or students. Okay, none of them are posh birds, but the night and empty corridors do weird things to voices. Shut up, Robert.”

A low, cold voice drifted down the corridor. “It's in here.”

Robert stopped dead in his tracks and murmured, “Steel!” He clenched his fists and tried to remember how to walk, then moved slowly to the corner and peered around it.

 

Standing on the threshold of a lab, Sapphire held up her head, staring intently into something that was nothing. “The first building here was a monastery in the thirteenth century. Later it became a hospice for plague victims, then an insane asylum. So much energy for a being to feast upon.”

She held up her hand and Steel emerged from the darkness of the room, a shadow over half his face. “There's something else,” a statement rather than a question.

 

They both turned and stared at Robert.

A warm smile crept over Sapphire's face as she stepped forward. “Hello, Robert. It's been a long time, hasn't it?”

Robert slowly approached. “It's been over twenty years, yet you recognised me. You haven't changed a bit, either of you. Wait, is there something happening here? Another break in time?”

Steel nodded curtly. “Possibly,” then promptly vanished back into the dark room.

“Cheerful as ever, I see,” Robert muttered, before turning to Sapphire. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“We don't know yet,” Sapphire tilted her head, keeping her voice low. “Ah, yes. You're taller than me now. That's what's different about you.”

“That and an extra twenty years on the clock,” Robert mused as he watched her face. A memory of her bare shoulders surfaced in his mind and he quickly turned away. “Um, well, that room's the anechoic chamber. The triangular padding dampens a heck of a lot of the sound. Not my field, but there's tons of fascinating research into acoustics conducted here. Oh, be careful if you go inside. There's a mesh floor that you might catch your heels in.”

Sapphire nodded. “Yes, of course. Have there been any reports of strange incidents around here?”

Robert shook his head. “Student pranks, mostly. The worst was Atomic Egg Boy. A few years back, one of our not-so brightest decided to play with the lead egg-shaped casing for one of the experiments in radioactivity. He was excluded from further studies in this area. He's something of a celebrity now.”

Robert barely noticed that Steel had rejoined them and had been listening intently. “He sounds like an absolute imbecile, mishandling heavier elements like that. Robert, would you assist me in an experiment?”

“Of course!” Robert replied. 'What do you need.”

“I want to observe the effects of this chamber on humans,” Steel beckoned with his finger and stepped back into the darkness.

“Most people experience nothing out of the ordinary. Some people can hear their heart beating, or the blood rushing in their ears,” Robert found himself whispering as Sapphire shut the door on them. “Stories about people being driven mad after half an hour are just ghost stories.”

As the last sliver of light disappeared, Steel quietly intoned, “Sometimes ghost stories aren't just stories.”

 

Robert let his eyes adjust to the dark and listened as Steel slowly paced across the mesh flooring, the metal making an unearthly creaking beneath his feet. Steel stopped, and silence returned. Robert leant against the soft wall foam and let his mind wander. How long had it been for Sapphire and Steel? Moments? Years? Centuries? Their clothes were updated, and Steel's hair was a little shorter, his appearance still anywhere from thirty-ish to fifty-ish. What form did they actually take, and why chose these particular faces?

Two distinct feelings, one of annoyance, another of amusement flooded his mind. Robert wondered if Sapphire and Steel had been reading his thoughts all this while.

Sparkles of light filled his eyes and he heard Steel walking around again.

“Steel?” Robert whispered.

“Don't turn around,” Steel warned.

The sound of the ocean filled Robert's ears as he strained to listen. Was that sound coming from inside his head, or outside, somewhere behind him? Behind the wall? He felt the hairs on the back of neck rise and a crackling green light floated around him. Whispers and murmurs came from somewhere, dulled by the wall insulation. 

Sapphire's calm voice came to him. “Robert, when I say so, you are to step away to the right. Be prepared.”

Robert breathed out and mouthed a silent yes.

A series of metallic clicks and growls came from somewhere in front of him. Robert tried to imagine just what he could be doing, tensing ready to spring away.

Sapphire's voice said, “Robert. Now!”

Diving away, Robert had a sense of fire and cold, blue and white light, as he sensed Steel rush towards him, then there was darkness and silence again.

Voice quivering, Robert tried to breath, “Steel?”

 

Sapphire spoke again. “It's okay, Robert. I'm opening the door now.”

A thin sliver of vertical light appeared as the door opened, as Sapphire stood smiling reassuringly. She waved him over and he did so, pausing to look back in the darkness. 

Steel slowly approached and glanced back. “There's minimal damage. Your colleagues shouldn't be too inconvenienced.”

“What was it?” Robert asked.

“The best human approximation is that they were echoes, trapped throughout time,” Sapphire replied thoughtfully.

“So, if people reported noises and voices in these chambers, they weren't imagining things?” Robert said.

“Probably not. There was several hundred years' of sounds accumulated and trapped,” Steel replied, carefully watching Robert.

“And my part, my _assistance_ was bait?” Robert folded his arms, suspicions raised.

Steel glanced back into the chamber. “A lightning rod, of sorts.”

Sapphire placed a friendly hand on his shoulder. “Thank you, Robert. We do need to go and dispose of the debris, but it's good to see you again.”

“I thought of you a lot over the years. I'm glad I got to see you again. Even you, Steel. I used to be so afraid of you, but then I realised I shouldn't be.”

“Oh?” Steel raised an eyebrow.

“I just started to picture you with Helen's teddy bear,” Robert let a sly grin cross his face as Steel sighed in exasperation. Sapphire's beaming smile was the last thing Robert saw as they faded from sight.

 

A renewed sense of mystery and wonder stirred in Robert as he walked out into the dawn. He gazed at the row of blue aconite which would soon bloom in the sunlight, and went home to start his short holiday.

 

Steel seemed to sigh as he and Sapphire reappeared in Robert's office. “Why?” A simple statement.

Sapphire tilted her head from side to side as she examined the stopped clock. “Surely we can do this small favour for him?”

“There are professionals who can fix it,” Steel observed.

“Perhaps I should call on Silver, he'd be thrilled to tinker with it,” Sapphire swayed a little as she gazed into space.

Steel practically rippled with annoyance as he flicked the dome's hinges open and inspected the clock's innards. “A simple repair, it won't take much time.”

“So to speak,” Sapphire's smile was impish as she watched Steel fashion a replacement sprocket and insert it into place.

Steel set the clock as a soft ticking filled the room. “Correct time, and fixed with the minimum of fuss. Silver would make an ostentatious show of things if he were here. On the other hand, this was simple, efficient, quick,” noted Steel. 

“Well done,” Sapphire nodded her thanks.

“Perhaps there's one more thing I could do for Robert,” Steel stood before the blackboard and added a few terms to his equation. “He's on the right track, so a little nudge in the right direction wouldn't be out of line. If he's as intelligent as he appears to be, then he'll see the significance and save a little time.”

“After all this time, you can still surprise me, Steel,” Sapphire's admiration was genuine and heartfelt.

“A good partner can keep the other one on their toes, as you do so often,” Steel acknowledged, his voice softer than usual, a glimmer in his eye. “Now, what's next?”

“Let's find out,” Sapphire placed her hand on his shoulder as they faded away.


End file.
